For Americans foolish enough to heed radical secularists, mendacious media milquetoasts, Hollywood hedonistic heretics, and politically elite glitterati — who not only refuse to recognize Thanksgiving as a reaffirmation of faith in God, but also strive to impose their non-belief on those who do recognize it as such — this uniquely American holiday is nothing more than a break from work, a time to sleep late, overeat, over-spend, party nonstop … and certainly not to do what they should: Give thanks.
How sad. How wrong. How sinful. To those heathenish, unholy hellions, I speak one word: Liberty.
Each Thanksgiving, as a family patriarch mindful of and thankful for my children and increasing number of grandchildren, I kneel before the Giver of all to express gratitude for being a citizen of the country that offers liberties that are unimaginable to countless millions of suffering, oppressed people in other lands.
In acknowledging His loving kindness, I don’t enumerate my blessings, as that would be impossible, but I never fail to thank Him for the blessing of being an American, and for the blessing without which all other blessings would be diminished or nonexistent: Liberty.
When that stalwart of liberty, Abraham Lincoln, proclaimed Thanksgiving as an annual national holiday, war was raging, not far away as is the conflict now engaging America’s troops, but virtually within earshot.
And yet, President Lincoln recognized that giving thanks was even more important during those dark days when economic hardship, horrific devastation and unimaginable loss of life swirled about him. Painfully aware that the very existence of “…a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal…” was hanging in the balance, he did what God-fearing, God-loving, God-serving men should do: He gave thanks.
Some of the words Lincoln spoke when he authorized the Thanksgiving holiday bear repeating, for they remain as relevant now, during this time of national angst and uncertainty, as they were when he uttered them in 1863:
“No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the most-high God, Who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy … I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens … to observe the last Thursday of November … as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father….
“And I recommend … that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular … blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners … in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged and fervently implore the interposition of the almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it … to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and union.”
This Thanksgiving, I will pray for those things, and for the preservation of that inexpressibly precious blessing: Liberty.
Jimmy Reed is an Oxford, Mississippi resident, Ole Miss and Delta State University alumnus, Vietnam Era Army Veteran, former Mississippi Delta cotton farmer and ginner, author, and retired college teacher.
This story is a selection from Jimmy Reed’s latest book, entitled The Jaybird Tales.
Copies, including personalized autographs, can be reserved by notifying the author via email (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).
